I have started my academic career in 2004 when commencing a PhD at the Transport Operations Research Group, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University. I completed the PhD studies (urban form impact on travel behaviour) in 2008 and moved to the University of Aberdeen to take an offer as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Transport Research, School of Geosciences. I have since been involved in various UK Research Council and EU funded transport research projects addressing sustainable development. I have also been involved in a number of national and international research projects in developing international journey planning systems, reflecting transport inclusive digital economy, roadmapping Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies, exploring walking and cycling in Scotland and promoting sustainable urban mobility planning in European cities.

In 2010, I returned to Newcastle University accepting Research Associate post with NewRail, Newcastle Centre for Railway Research, School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering. I have looked at the urban form impact on freight (transport) travel behaviour and long distance freight within the supply management. I have contributed to various EU funded projects in themes including 'Rail freight policy and planning', 'Urban freight studies' and 'Green and sustainable logistics'.    
 
In 2017, I moved across to Newcastle University Business School, to work on food value chains and network dynamics of EU countries addressing challenges of sustainable production and distribution. In the meanwhile I have been engaged in teaching several modules including international logistics, quantitative methods for business and management, and research methods.

Entering 2022, I joined the Centre of Logistics and Sustainability at Heriot-Watt University, to work on sustainable road freight and in particular on cold chain. In January 2023, I started my academic faculty tenureship at the Edinburgh Business School, School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University. Having Programme Directorship in MSc Business Analytics and Consultancy, I have been teaching Business Analytics, Big Data, and Green and Sustainable Logistics. 

My research interest centred on interpretation of new data toward sustainability. Here below are some of comissioned projects that I have been involved with and shaping my understanding of research lifecycle, knowledge development, and wider topics of interest. In short, I would say that the more we know the more we don't know and we have so many questions with so little time. 

Funded projects / research grant experience

1. Sustainable Cold Chain and Zero Emission Cold Chain (including UKERC, EPSRC, ACES ~ £835k between 2022-2025): addressing sustainable road freight and cold chain decarbonization planning and policy under two research centres: the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight https://www.csrf.ac.uk/ and the Centre for Sustainable Cooling https://www.sustainablecooling.org/ (Research lead on Sustainable Cold Chain background studies)
2. Development of a co-designed zero-carbon urban freight system (£10k) (Autumn 2020 – for 6 months) funded by EPSRC DecarboN8 Seedcorn Fund: Exploring stakeholder’s perspective (with Transport for the North) towards freight systems in order to co-design a series of scenarios to reduce carbon emissions in the North East of England, identifying potential drivers and barriers to their implementation. (co-wrote proposal and consortium building) https://decarbon8.org.uk/decarbon8-research-projects/
3. Innovative and collaborative solutions to shape freight transport systems of the future: a co-design process (£2.5k) (Jan 2019- July 2019) (Co funded by Newcastle University Business School impact funding): Co-production via a deep and broad participatory process (with North East Freight Partnership) to identifying, scoping and undertaking an initial assessment of future collaborative and innovative urban freight solutions, including new technologies, automation and driverless delivery vehicles. (PI)
4. VALUMICS (£285k) (May 2017-April 2020) (Co funded by Horizon 2020 Research Programme by the European Union - EU H2020): Addresses specific challenges facing the food system and food value chains in Europe. It aims to improve understanding the functioning of different links in the food chain, their viability and sustainability within specific supply chains and across food chains, and how they provide capacity to foster the sustainability and resilience of the food system. (Research fellowship to conduct and deliver research tasks) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/727243
5. MyCorridor (£295k) (July 2017-June 2020) (Co-funded by EU H2020): Aiming to develop the technological and business platform, which will enable technologies applications, business models, legal and operational schemes and travel behavior adaptation and promotion strategies to make Mobility as a Service (MaaS) a sustainable reality, seamlessly integrating public and private transportation means as needed, into a cross-border travel chain, without owing any of them. (co-wrote proposal)  https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/723384
6. NOVELOG (£315k) (2015-May 2018) (Co-funded by EU H2020): Investigating new cooperative business models and guidance for sustainable city logistics – enabling knowledge and understanding of urban freight distribution and service trips in order for cities to implement effective and sustainable policies and measures and facilitate stakeholder collaboration for sustainable city logistics. (Co-wrote proposal, design and managing research, collect and analyse data and reporting) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/636626
7. Smartset (£100k) (2012-2016, Co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme of the European Union ~ EU-IEE): Efficient Urban freight Transport – The project developed and demonstrated how freight transport in European cities and regions can be made more energy-efficient and sustainable by better use of freight terminals. (Co-wrote proposal, research design, collect and analyse data and deliver research report) https://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/projects/en/projects/smartset
8. Smartfusion (£450k) (2011-2015, Co-funded by the Framework Programme7 of the European Union ~ EU FP7): Smart Urban Freight Solutions – The project demonstrated the feasibility of green technologies to the last miles urban freight operation to make the cities greener. The focus was measuring the impact of technologies intervention can make to help urban freight operation greener. (Research design, collect and analyse data and deliver research report) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/285195
9. SuperGreen (£100k) (2010-2013, Co funded by EU FP7): The project promoted the development of European freight logistics in an environmentally friendly manner through an evaluation of a series of 'green corridors' covering some representative regions and main transport routes throughout Europe. The focus was on benchmarking freight corridors using green technologies and smart utilization of ICT. (First given task at NewRail to coordinate research project, design research, collect and analyse data and deliver research report) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/233573
10. SETRIS (£270k) (ongoing up to 2017, Co-funded by EU H2020): Strengthening European Transport Research and Innovation Strategies – delivering a cohesive and coordinated approach to research and innovation strategies for all transport modes in Europe. (Conduct research and deliver research report) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/233573
11. Viajeo PLUS(£160k) (2013-2016, Co-funded by the Framework Programme7 of the European Union ~ EU FP7): benchmarking outstanding examples of innovative solutions on green urban mobility in Europe, Latin America, China and Singapore. (contribute to proposal development, design research, collect and analyse data, deliver report to funder) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/605580
12. RETRACK(2007-2012, Co-funded by EU FP6): The project aimed to contribute to the freight modal shift aspiration from road to rail within the framework of open access and free ‘rail freight’ market. (analyse data, deliver report) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/38552
13. SEGMENT (2010-1012, Co funded by EU-IEE): The project was investigating whether Market Segmentation can be used in persuading people to change their behaviour and adopt more energy efficient forms of transport. The focus was on the use of life change ‘trigger points’ which force consumers to question travel habits, alongside a detailed market segmentation approach to magnify the impact of mobility management campaigns. (design data collection methodology, deliver initial report) https://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/projects/en/projects/segment
14. ReVISIONS (2008-2012, Co-funded by the UK Research Council Engineering and Physical Science Research Council ~ EPSRC): The project was investigating whether particular spatial planning policies in conjunction with 'green' infrastructure technologies and regulations can make city regions more sustainable. The aim was to reduce environmental impacts and allow households to live more sustainably, with better health and an enhanced quality of life. The objective was to produce guidance for decision makers on the interrelationships between regional spatial planning, infrastructure design and economic competitiveness. (collect data and deliver research report) https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/F007566/1
15. Walking and Cycling and Socio-economic status in Scotland (2009-2010, Co-funded by the National Health Service ~ NHS): Analysis of statistical (secondary) data to identify who, how and for what purpose do people do their cycling and walking (travel) activity towards healthier Scotland. (Involved in proposal writing and delivering data analysis and reporting) http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/4655.aspx
16. ICMA (2009-2011, Co-funded by EU INTERREG IVB): ITS technology roadmap to draw together and disseminate good practice in relation to how the 'first and last mile' of local journeys were improved across Northwest European partners' cities. The focus was on improvements to services quality and efficiency. (Designing data collection methodology, and deliver research report)
17. SOLUTIONS (2006-2009, EPSRC): land-use scenario testing towards future suburb. The project was to establish how far and by what means suburbs can be planned so that they are socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and economically efficient. A practical output from the project was best practice guidance for sustainable urban development. (Modelling data analysis and reporting research) https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=GR/S90874/01
18. WISETRIP (2008-2010, EU FP7): model of an international journey planning system. The project was to develop and validate an innovative mobility service platform, which provided and personalised multi-modal travel information sources from connected variant journey planners and accessible by travellers at any place and time through various mobile or fixed terminals/devices before and during the journey. (Delivered research report) https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/213233
19. INCLUSIVE DIGITAL ECONOMY (2009, EPSRC): the project was exploring the impact of digital economy on older people and reporting the extent to which this effects transport and health. (Co-wrote proposal and delivering research report) https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/G002118/1

Transport and land-use planning; transport policy; travel behaviour; sustainable development; freight and logistics 

I have been working on several research proposals on sustainable freight and logistics, urban freight planning, cold chain, material flow analytics, impact studies (including rural freight operations, drone logistics, heat pump). 

I have secured the departmental PhD scholarhship Grant in urban freight studies - Kunal Shetty (Sep 2024 - )